tallgeese

Thanks! Yeah I was very honored to be asked to teach at something like this. It was also cool to have the viewpoint to bring an aspect of BJJ to a crowd of JKD guys that would be useful for them. Not to mention the stress of working with such a talented line up was not insubstantial. I am lucky to be located where I am to catch stuff like this so often I don't have travel for things like this. I'm always jealous of guys in So. California who have even more availability and access to cool events.

3/20 Drilled PTK footwork patterns and worked into forms. Spent time working some application into the flow from the form. Finished with knife slash and stab angles.

3/19 Drilled straight ankle lock with counter contingency planning. 30 min free roll. 3,3 min rounds of working stand up.

I train pretty regularly train in my basement. When I had to travel the better part of an hour for hits, I had mats down. Now that the gym I train at is so close and I can go there pretty much whenever, I changed the set up a bit to accommodate my stad up/ weapons work, which I spend far more time doing on my own between sessions.

3/18 Warm up with sticks. Moved into PTK footwork drills. Drilled form and into fluid attacks.

We actually had this set up while I was in college. It was our "Saturday Sparring" session. We had kempo guys, some karate, boxers, a kick boxer or two, the occasional Chinese stylist even. It was a fantastic learning time. I love this sort of thing. Like MP said, layout some ground rules ahead of time. This will go a long way to keep things in check. Also, some styles spar harder than others set some contact limitations at the start. Good luck and let us know how the experiment goes.

3/17 Drilled straight ankle lock, toe hold, transition into alternate toe hold from de La Riva. 30 min verrrry careful free roll. 2, 6 min rounds of boxing work. Fighter prep.

Thanks everyone! Day was good and the new year is promising.

3/16 Footwork warm up. Drilled previous stick work patterns as well. Worked first 3 movements of PTKs multiple attack form. Moved into 5 fluids practice. Finished with applied stick work cool down.

3/15 Drilled tight set up for the Americana followed by an arm triangle set up. 18 min of flow roll to get back into it. That, some careful tactic selection, and about an entire roll of tape around my knee got me some live mat time.

I finally got around to getting some footage from the weekend's seminar compiled from the facebook feed. For those that didn't get a chance to see it, here's some overview: some DBMA: PTK: JKD: Wing Chun: and last but not least, yours truly: Enjoy!

So fill us in....what are the Dolans? A brand or handmade product, ect? I've been around a while, but not long enough to be giving away weapons in 1983.

Welcome to KF! I'd stick with whatever the instructor suggested. Sounds like he's got a plan. Just be up front with the situation. Most people should be pretty okay with all this once they understand where you came from. Keep us posted on your progress and how it goes.

Yup, tape them together. As it happens I'm just coming off a broken toe. Buddy tape it. Ice it for 72 hours before starting heat. Hit up the aspirin and anti- inflammatories. Again, take some time off of stuff that hurts. In my case I backed off open mat and just worked technique for a week or so. Then started with flow rolls until it was good to go.

3/14 Still can't roll. However, I did get to attend a flow night at PTK. Worked single stick/ sword form followed immediately by integrating those movements into distance sparring. Then into technical sparring. Finished by working into knife with the same movements. And my knees not worse. Win.

3/12 Drilled set up and arm bar from guard. 5 whole minutes of free roll followed by a knee injury and an ice bag. Great. Ice, anti inflammatories, and a drink on it now and lots of hoping that this is minor.

That's a great way to put it- recharging my batteries. It really did feel like that. It also gave me a great look at the path I want my JKD, and by extension my own personal journey to go. It also gave me a great chance to see and work with martial artists that I want to be more like. As for the punch block sequence I'll see if I can shoot some video for you in the near future and get it to you.

I just wanted to take a second and give everyone a bit of a review of a seminar that I was lucky enough to take part in a couple of weekends ago. I was honored to be asked to teach Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for JKD at this seminar and it was a phenomenal experience. As titled, I feel it was a milestone in my martial career and I’ll get to that in a bit. The seminar, the Warrior’s Weekend, was the brainchild of my friend and guide in the realm of JKD, Nik Farooqui who envisioned it as more than just a martial arts workout, but as a way to build a network and brotherhood of like minded, combative artists of various disciplines. It was a way to move away from the closed mindedness of many martial events and expose artists and instructors to tools and tactics that would expand everyone’s game. The line-up he brought in for this was top notch. First up, we had Carlos Flores teaching aspects of Dog Brothers Martial Arts. Almost every other exposure to stick work I’ve had has revolved around pattern after pattern with little to no application. This was not the case with Carlos, who had us almost immediately working application after drilling us on specific footwork that was fluid, precise, and functional. Dominick Izzo came next. Dominick is a Wing Chun practitioner who has some strong opinion on his art, and combat arts as a whole. I found his presentation to be excellent. I’d never considered spending time looking into Wing Chun before. Honestly, I had always kind of considered it as a kind of outdated starting point for JKD. Dominick really changed this erroneous impression I had of the art and totally changed my opinion of it. It was an eye opener and I was happy to have met Wing Chun through Dominick. I closed out day one with a punch block sequence from the guard out of BJJ. It’s one of the core things of the self defense aspect of the art and one that is fundamentally important for those looking to cross train in BJJ for other combative arts. Luckily, the feedback was good and it felt as if people were able to take the information and make it their own, which was something that was important to me as an instructor at this event. The next day kicked off with Paul Ingram teaching Pekiti Tersia Kali, an explosively violent (and absolutely beautiful) blade based art. Having circled around the outside of the JKD world a time or two over the years I’ve seen a few Kali arts even if I haven’t spent a great deal of time actually diving into them. Paul made me rethink that lack of involvement and I hope that I can make time to train in this really cool art soon. Last, Nik taught an aspect of JKD that I don’t always see done well. Low line attacks. Nik’s game here is awesome and functional and puts to use some kicks out of various kali arts and savate. Some have radically different chambering solutions than the kicks out of karate based arts I’m used to. It was an excellent example of a short block of instruction that can immediately and easily be integrated into what one is already doing. Just fantastic. That takes us through the technical portions, which were awesome. However, the true strength of this event was the way that so many combative artists came together and saw how much more alike we were than different. It also allowed me to make new friends and training partners and reconnect with others. Even our resident Groinstrike and MasterPain came up for the festivities and it’s always great to see those guys. So how is this a milestone? People that have been around the arts for a long time, like for decades, might get it. We get used to the grind, maybe even tired of it a bit. We get insular and stop looking. We accept that we’re good at one thing, or two, and fail to continue looking outside ourselves or our group for potential answers. This seminar was the cure for that. I’m not sure that I’ve been as inspired to train for a long time. Not just in outside arts, but to drive forward in BJJ as well. Truly a milestone for me, I look at it as the first step in the next evolution of my martial journey. And I can’t wait for the rest of it.

3/9 Drilled some JKD knife work. Moved into PTK forms. 3/10 Drilled collar choke from overhook. Moved into arm bar. Worked live in free roll for first time sine the toes went. Not too bad. worked off of bottom and fed for one of the fighters.

3/7 Drilled choke variant from guard. 15 min free roll 3/8 Drilled choke to armbar from guard. Moved into flower sweep. 20 min free roll.

3/6 Drilled knife and stick attack patterns.

No full families, but lots of partial sets. We don't have a mixed kids/ adults classes, but there are kids and parents both doing their things. For my part, I train and both my kiddos are in their respective age groups class.

Great thread! It's hard to be in this for an extended time and not have some regrets. Luckily, none of mine are earth shattering, but they would have changed things for sure. First, I wish I would have trained SMARTER, younger. I wish I had known how pushing too hard would have effected me later. Again, nothing debilitating, but I'm tired of knowing when it's going to rain my how my wrist feels. Next, I would have like to have made the jump when I was fighting and do more than just amateur level events. One or two pro bouts, no matter how primitive by today's standards, would have been nice to have in the back pocket. However, that's an ego thing so I don't rank it real high. I have been lucky to not have an extended layoff. But along those lines, I wish I would have moved to pure BJJ earlier than I did. I wish I would have met some of the people I know now in life earlier. But all of that said, my journey has been fantastic and hopefully it's not even close to over.

This particular translation has always been problematic for me. I tend to look at the problem in teh same manner as ps1. I think that's a great translation. I'm not 100% that's what the intent was at the outset, but I like it more. If we take the translation as it's often inferred I think it gives us real problems. Defense never wins fights, offense does. Defense is only useful to over come the ambush situation and begin our own attack. If we're ahead of the situation and reading pre-assault indicators properly then by all means we should attack first. This is how we win. We don't give the aggressor the footing to potentially take the initiative. We take the forward momentum of the fight and stay inside the other guys OODA loop. But that's just me from a combative viewpoint.

3/5 Drilled lapel choke from guard. Gaining and maintaining dominant guard position. 15 min free roll. Warmed up with knife angels from the previous weekend.